


Chrysanthemum

by rnr4ev



Series: Familial Ties [2]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-10 09:52:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15946910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rnr4ev/pseuds/rnr4ev
Summary: An AU where Shinjiro and Akechi are half brothers





	1. Research

**Author's Note:**

> In Japan, white Chrysanthemum's are a flower often used at funerals...

1.  
Mitsuru had the Kirijo group fund Shinjiro’s funeral and grave plot. Fuuka knew this, although it was only years later that she realized why he was placed next to a “Miki Sanada” in the local graveyard. After...after everything she would think about that little graveyard, filled with few family names grouped together. She knew of course, that Akihiko and Shinjiro had grown up in an orphanage, but it was one thing to know and another to be reminded that Minato was buried with his parents and Shinjiro was not.

It was a thought that came back to her, after her parents had praised her for one of the few times in her life after learning she was employed to the Kirijo company. As overbearing as their inferiority complex was she knew where her ashes would be when she died.

2.  
Fuuka looked into the orphanage’s records. She had been searching on a request from Mitsuru to ensure that there was no other children that the Kirijo group had snuck off with or lured away to experiment on before everything. She flagged a view names for review, flushed bright red out of guilt and embarrassment when she realized she had accidently began to read about how Mrs. and Mr. Sanada had passed and quickly flipped over to the next file. Shinjiro Aragaki had no parents listed.

3.  
Fuuka began the process of looking up information on Shinjiro in her spare time. She hadn’t told Mitsuru yet as her friend would most likely have as much information as Fuuka had and while Akihiko had perhaps come to terms with death the fastest of the team, he also rarely brought up his childhood and Fuuka didn’t want to disturb her senpai with those questions.  
She found a name, eventually, Saeko, no last name. She tied in the name with Shinjiro’s birth certificate to find the hospital he was born in. It took a little bit of maneuvering but she made her way into the hospitals information. Juno didn’t like having things hidden from her and Fuuka found herself increasingly motivated the more she searched.

4.  
Saeko Miura had been 17 and unmarried when she had given birth to a baby boy in August 11th, 1991. She died 1 week later due to complications from the pregnancy. The Miura family had claimed Saeko’s body but had disavowed the child. No records existed officially about the baby’s father. Unofficially, accessing the metadata showed that the name and information had all been edited out. Most hospitals at the time still relied on paper records but this hospital seemed to have been a pilot for an online database. The information now was a lot more secure but then? It took Fuuka 20 minutes to pull up the deleted files.

Aragaki was listed as the surname on the suggestion of the Miura family and had been approved by the baby’s father. Following Saeko’s death the Miura family had been requested to take baby Shinjiro in. At their refusal Masayoshi Shido, who at this time was listed under the birth certificate had been contacted. Following this his name was edited out of the certificate and a week later Shinjiro was cited as entering the orphanage.

5.  
Fuuka’s eyes burned when she finished compiling the evidence together. She had half a mind to request a public inquiry into the hospital’s malpractice of deleting and manipulating records but the incident had happened a little over two decades ago so there would be little she could do. Instead she finally went to Mitsuru.

6.  
Masayoshi Shido was a rising politician. He was charming, confidant and most importantly convincing. When Mitsuru received Fuuka’s information she very calmly made a few internal calls to pull any support the Kirijo group had been considering offering the campaign and had then turned to back to Fuuka.

“While I understand that a child out of wedlock would have been a scandal for a politician, the ease of which the records were hidden in what is most concerning to me. It doesn’t necessarily fall under our jurisdiction but if you would look into Shido some more I will do my best to personally support you” Mitsuru’s expression was cold and determined and Fuuka could feel the heavy weight of the task that was now settled over her.

7.  
Trying to find a negative word against Shido was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so Fuuka went back to the hospital and personal records. The picture they painted was not pretty. There was more hidden or deleted data, much more. Many were for small offenses, disorderly conduct a dismissed report of drunk driving (the officer who reported it was transferred and demoted she noticed). The hospital records were mostly within the range of normalcy, which is why she almost missed a deleted tag connecting Shido to a deleted patient record. One Masayoshi Shido had admitted a pregnant Hana Akechi to the hospital. She gave birth to a baby boy. Shido’s name did not appear on this birth certificate but a nagging suspicion formed in Fuuka’s mind.

Unlike Shinjiro’s birth mother, Hana Akechi was the surviving only child of her family. She was a single mother who worked two jobs with no support. The first year after her son’s birth she received a considerable transfer of money to her account but after that there was nothing besides the income she brought in herself. The money had come from a proxy bank account that led back to Shido and the suspicion grew into a more solid proof. The more Fuuka read the more concerned she became. The police report of Hana Akechi’s death made her heart ache. Her child, the only living relative she had left had been the one to find her hanging in the apartment after school. Fuuka stopped then.

8.  
She found herself at Shinjiro’s grave with a rice ball in her hand. She wasn’t a master cook by a long shot but she was definitely better than during highschool and her rice balls consistently turned out. She wasn’t really sure why she had come. The cemetary was quiet and she found herself filling the silence by talking about her cooking and how she had kept Shinjiro’s magazine subscription up. She stayed until the sky started to grow dark and then she went back home. Somewhere out there, Shinjiro had a little half brother that he had never known.

9.  
She told Akihiko before Mitsuru this time, mostly because she ran into him first. Ken had stopped by her apartment a few days before begging her to take Koro-chan for the week so he could focus on his finals and she’d happily agreed. It was a bright and sunny day when she took Koromaru on a walk past the cemetary. She hadn’t been planning to enter but Koro’s ears perked up and he yipped excitedly, tugging towards the gates. She brought him towards Shinji’s headstone and paused as she noticed a man there. Koro happily ran towards him and when she heard a familiar voice go

“Huh? Koromaru?” She recognized Akihiko.

They talked quietly for a few minutes as Koro tried to find the most comfortable position to lay down. It wasn’t until Akihiko mentioned how Shirogane had been a huge help in getting him through the police academy that she brought it up.  
“Do you know Goro Akechi then?” she asked.  
“Him? No, but he’s supposed to be coming for Naoto’s old title yeah? He’s a detective though so the work is slightly different than being a police officer, why do you ask?” Fuuka bit at her lip nervously and took a deep breathe.

10.  
Goro Akechi rarely got mail at his home address. It wasn’t available to the public (thank god, the amount of hate mail he’d receive was probably multiplying as he spoke) and messages that needed to be delivered to him usually found him while he was at the office assisting the work on the phantom thieves or mental shutdown cases. So when he came back home after one of the few normal school days he’d had in a while, the unassuming white envelope in his mailbox was an abnormal sight. He went to toss it onto a counter when the return sender name caught his eye.  
Kiriji. He paused and opened the letter instead.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akechi contacts the Kirijo group and receives a rather interesting visitor in return.

To Goro Akechi,

We apologize that it took so long to contact you. Recently it has come to our attention that you are related to a former part time employee as well as scholarship holder in our company who lost his life in an unfortunate company related accident. We take our employees very seriously at the Kirijo company and it was a grievous mistake to put off looking into his family background. As it stands, besides your father, you are his only blood relative. Because of your unique position we wished to extend reparations by offering you a chance for free Kirijo funded housing and schooling. When you come of age we are also willing to assist in funding your higher education. Attached is our company file on your brother, Shinjiro Aragaki.

 

The letter is signed with a generic official signed Kirijo logo. Following this is another smaller letter.

 

Dear Goro Akechi,

As the current head of the Kirijo group I feel that I must personally write to you instead of just leaving you with a generic company approved note. Aragaki was a friend of mine. He grew up in an orphanage and to our chagrin we only recently learned of his relation to you. I can personally guarantee that all Kirijo support and funding has been cut from going to Mayashi Shido. Politics or not, family is important to our company and the disregard he showed both you and Aragaki is appalling. If you have any further questions I or my coworkers who worked with Aragaki will be free to answer them. We will even direct you to resources and Aragaki’s friends outside of the company if you so wish. Do not be afraid to reach us.

Mitsuru Kirijo

 

Akechi stares down at the letters, mind spinning, numb. He grips the edge of the table so hard his knuckles turn white and then in a swift motion crumples the papers and throws them to the trash. It bounces off the rim onto the floor but Akechi doesn’t care. 

 

He most definitely doesn’t pick up the letter again. He certainly doesn’t smooth out the wrinkles. And quite surely Akechi doesn’t carefully fold the letter up again and slide it back into its pristine envelope.

 

Why now? Why couldn’t they have contacted him years ago? 

 

Reparations? Offers to pay for school and financially support him? A place to stay and addressing Shido?

 

A humorless laugh leaves his mouth. He neatly drops the envelope into the trash can again. 

 

He fishes the envelope out of the trash can with a sigh an hour later.

 

Shinjiro Aragaki’s profile information provided in the envelope are sparse and generic. Date of birth, height, a picture, some nonsensical gibberish about his role in the company and his housing. Date of death. Akechi takes the picture and examines it. They don’t look all that related, not really but... there’s something in the way his hair falls that makes Akechi reach up to the ends of his own hair. Shinjiro’s eyes are a shade closer to their  _ father’s _ than Akechi, who had inherited his mother’s eye color. 

 

It’s bizarre in a way. Looking for similarities in an alien face. Looking for reminders of  _ him _ . He can’t help but wonder what Shinjiro would think of Shido. Did he know him? The letter mentioned an orphanage. Did he die without knowing his father had abandoned him? Did he care? Would things have been different if he-

 

Akechi stops that train of thought. So what if he has another dead relative? It’s not surprising that he’s not the only bastard Shido left behind. There’s nothing he can do to change the past, dead older brother or no, all he can do is continue forward and then, and then…

 

Against his better judgement he pulls out stationary and a pen.

 

Mitsuru honestly hadn’t been expecting much from Akechi. Judging from his TV appearances the kid clearly didn’t need the resources that the Kirijo company was offering and even if he accepted how could they help him? Shinjiro hadn’t even known of his existence. She couldn’t imagine how Akechi would even react. She had known her family before their deaths. She had mourned her father and had relied on her friends to learn how to live without him. How different would things be if she hadn’t known him? She shook her head. 

 

It had only been a week. The chances of receiving a reply so fast were slim to none. Still though, she peered at the stack of mail on her desk. Company letters, a spam mail, a letter from Shido’s campaign manager, another letter from Shido’s campaign, government official letter, a letter from Akechi, a childishly colored postcard with Pink Argus on the cover, another government letter and- She paused and quickly flipped back. A letter from Akechi.

 

To Kirijo-san

 

Greetings, I recently received your letters regarding the existence of my half-brother. First of all, as a detective I must commend your dedication to finding the truth of this matter and if it is possible I would implore you to keep my relation to Shido a close guarded secret, as I’m sure you can understand. 

 

I would like to keep my options available at the moment but if applicable I will consider looking into the support your company has graciously offered me. As for requesting information, I think I will take you up on the offer of contacting Aragaki’s friends outside of the company. I mean no disrespect or offense of course, I simply wish to know what he was like outside of work.

Sincerely,

Detective Goro Akechi

 

She blinked back her surprise and then reached for the phone. Technically Ken wasn’t on the payroll for the company yet, despite being listed as an honorary Shadow Operative. Junpei or Yukari where options as well but with Yukari’s work and Junpei taking coaching positions out of country she doubted they would be able to send a reply soon enough. Of course the Shadow Operatives weren’t officially listed  _ anywhere _ so any member of SEES barring Fuuka and Aigis who were both officially listed under the Kirijo payroll could be an option but… something about even indirectly lying to this kid left a bitter taste in her mouth. Mind made up she dialed. 

 

Akechi slowly made his way back to his apartment. Mementos by himself was tiring enough but in a group where he had to rely solely on Robin Hood it was downright exhausting. It’s the only explanation he can give to failing to see the man standing by his door until he downright bumped into him. 

“Oh I’m terribly- 

“Are you- 

“-sorry.” 

-alright?”

 

Akechi blinked at the stranger, not a man but a boy his age. The boy blinked back.

“Oh, are you Akechi?” He asked. Akechi sighed, great a fan who knew where he lived. His irritation must have showed though because the boy quickly backpedaled.

 

“Sorry, Mitsuru-senpai told me just to write but that seemed impersonal and Koromaru needed a walk anyway so”

 

Mitsuru? As in Kirijo. Akechi felt his tiredness increase even more.

“Kirijo sent you?” He asked, trying to regain his polite composure.

 

The boy nodded and offered his hand.

“I’m Ken Amada” Akechi shook his hand before a sharp yip directed his attention to the Shiba Inu by Ken’s feet.

 

“And this is Koromaru” Ken added cheerfully, reaching over to scratch behind the dog’s ears.

Akechi nodded. 

 

“Would you like to come in? I don’t have much to offer but I’m sure I can find some tea somewhere” Ken nodded, a pensive look appearing across his features.

 

“That sounds nice.” 

 

Akechi walked around him to unlock his door, flipping on the lightswitch before directing his guest(s) to the couch. 

 

“I’ll be right there just let me put the pot on”

 

Ken took a seat, while Koromaru began sniffing around the space. In the privacy of the kitchen Akechi attempted to calm his nerves. He really hadn’t expected Kirijo to actually send a person over. Perhaps a letter or a phone call but a person? He shook his head and steadied his breath. When he made it back to the living room, Ken was sitting somewhat awkwardly on the corner of the couch. Akechi took a moment to reexamine him. Ken seemed to be about his age, but there was something about the way he held himself, in the way he seemed to constantly be examining his surroundings that led Akechi to think that maybe Ken was slightly above the normal students he encountered in his work and at school. He didn’t seem overly hostile or friendly and yet..he felt familiar somehow.

 

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I must say, I wasn’t expecting a house visit” Akechi supplied as he took a seat opposite Ken. Ken shuffled uncomfortably, looking at the cup of tea in his hands.

 

“Mitsuru-senpai asked me to write a letter and leave you with my contact information but I was in the area to look at schools and well, I figured you might appreciate someone to talk to.” Akechi hummed in agreement, taking a sip of his own tea. Ah, too bitter. He grimaced slightly and put the cup down.

 

“How are you acquainted with the Kirijo group?” He asked.

“Oh, I lived in their dorms. It’s how I met Mitsuru and” he paused for a second to gauge Akechi’s reaction, “and Shinjiro”.

Akechi frowned slightly, “You went to school with them?”

Ken shook his head, “Oh no, I was in middle school but the Kirijo group granted me a sort of advance scholarship that led to me living at the same dorm. 

An advance scholarship? Akechi filed the information away for later.

 

“Can you tell me about him?” He asked instead, hiding his expression behind another sip of tea.

Ken nodded, more enthusiastic. 

 

“Shinjiro was” he paused to collect his thoughts, “really kind and caring. He came across as being really gruff and cool but it was mostly just an act. He used to hand cook food for Koromaru every day and he even took me to our local festival, even though I was just a stupid kid back then.” Akechi glanced at the dog sleeping at Ken’s feet.

 

“Koromaru was his dog then?”

Ken shook his head, “Not really? I mean kind of? Koro’s owner had passed away before we found him and we kind of just adopted him at the dorm. Shinjiro looked after him the most though” as if sensing he was being talked about, the dog lifted his head and glanced at the two boys.

 

“You said Mitsuru, Shinjiro and you lived in the dorms together, was there anyone else he was close with?”

 

Ken nodded, “The dorm was actually pretty big compared to how many of us there were. Only” he paused to count, “about 10 or so of us lived there at the time? Shinjiro didn’t always stay around but I think it was just him, Akihiko and Mitsuru for awhile.” Akechi filed the new name away to look up later.

“Oh, you might actually know Akihiko! Well, wait, nevermind I don’t think he works out here but maybe I could give you his information? Akihiko-senpai’s a cop now so it might be easier to get in touch with him? He and Shinjiro were really close. They grew up together.” Akechi watched as Koromaru got up and stretched, his little face scrunching up before relaxing.

 

A soft silence settled the room then, as Akechi tried to figure out what else to say, or ask.

Ken sighed then, drawing Akechi’s attention away from the adorableness of the Shiba and back to him.

 

“I... There’s been something bothering me since I bumped into you and..well I have something to say and I request that you listen” The shift in Ken’s expression was startling. Where before it was amicable and open, he now wore a deadly serious expression. 

 

“Of course, I did invite you in after all” Akechi countered, careful to upkeep his calm tv persona in place.

 

“I tried to kill him”

Akechi startled, unsure if he’d heard correctly.

 

“When I was 8 my mom died in front of me. Sometimes… sometimes people with the potential lose control of their personas,” Akechi hid his growing shock behind a blank expression “well Shinjiro’s persona, it, he-” Ken pauses. 

 

“I never stopped to consider that he was also just a kid” He smiles sadly, “He gave his life to protect me. Told me to keep on living and I- he was a great guy, I wish I could have seen that before what happened”.

 

“I- I’m afraid you’ve caught me at a loss. I don’t know how to respond. A… persona you said?” 

 

Ken fixed him with a hard stare. 

 

“Don’t bother. I can tell you have one. I can feel it. Although judging by your reaction you either haven’t met other persona users or are very new to using one” Koromaru tilts his head questioningly.

 

Other persona users outside of the thieves? Now that Ken had mentioned it though, he let Robin Hood drift up out of his unconscious. There was something there. A feeling or an atmosphere when he looked at Ken and… Koromaru? His confusion must have shown on his face because Koromaru let out a small yip and jumped over to headbutt his knees. 

 

They both startled as Ken’s phone chimed. He sighed looking down at it. 

“Ugh, my train leaves soon, I’m afraid I have to leave”

Akechi stands to escort him to the door.

 

Ken pauses by the doorway.

 

“If we’re as similar as I think I urge you to think carefully about your next steps. Don’t make my mistakes”.

And then he’s gone, leaving Akechi more with more questions than he had before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact (that the current Persona writing team seems to have ignored) is that Persona users recognize other people who have personas. At the very least the entire cast of Persona 2 and 1 had this ability.... I love Ken as a character but I'm not very good at writing him yet T.T

**Author's Note:**

> Talk to me about persona at [squallisdead on twitter](https://twitter.com/squallisdead)  
> 


End file.
